Box Score The Valparaiso University baseball team fell 10-0 in eight innings to Belmont on Friday at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville, Tenn. Bruins starting pitcher Joe Ruzicka threw a one-hitter, allowing one walk and striking out seven while pitching all eight innings.  
 
How It Happened

• Valpo committed a pair of errors in the opening inning, leading to an unearned run to start the game's scoring.
• Belmont's Pete Daniel homered just past the 400-foot sign in straightaway center in the third. Valpo centerfielder Spencer Warfield (Fullerton, Calif. / Servite) made a leaping attempt, but both his glove and the ball landed on the wrong side of the wall.
• Valpo starter Connor Lockwood (Libertyville, Ill. / Libertyville) posted zeros in each of the next two innings. He faced the minimum in the fourth with help from a double play, then a nice grab in left by Patrick Ilitch (Detroit, Mich. / University Liggett) contributed to a scoreless fifth to keep the deficit at two.
• Belmont scored four in the sixth, all unearned after a two-out error extended the inning. Jake Maddox hit a three-run homer that lifted the lead to 6-0.
• Valpo went to the bullpen in the seventh, and the Bruins tacked on a run to make it 7-0.
• The Bruins scored three more times in the bottom of the eighth to invoke the run rule.

Inside the Game

• Five of the six runs charged to Lockwood were unearned, so he yielded just one earned run over his six innings.
• Valpo's defense has been shaky this week as the Beacons have committed three errors in back-to-back games and multiple errors in three straight.
• Thaxton accounted for the team's only hit on Friday, extending his on-base streak to 19.
• This was the first time an opposing team limited Valpo to a single hit since May 25, 2022 vs. Indiana State in the first round of the MVC Tournament. (The 2022 season both started and ended with Valpo being one-hit, opening day at Memphis and the MVC Tournament vs. Indiana State.)

Up Next
The Beacons (8-28, 3-13 MVC) and Bruins will do it again on Saturday with a 2 p.m. start at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville. The game will air on ESPN+.